


Song Of The Void

by Loreanth



Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag, I have Ideas but also a brain like Swiss cheese, I only watch one and a half hermits and can’t even write them please forgive me, OC-centric, Self-Indulgent, There is no plot, Written on the notes app on my iPad at 3 am, author has adhd and probably won’t post more then 2 chapters, first fic, i try my best, just A bunch of vaguely strung together scenes I want to write, no beta we die like men, not much, okay there is maybe some plot but like, written for myself by myself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28013202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loreanth/pseuds/Loreanth
Summary: ‘There was a new Hermit on Hermitcraft!’ The news had spread like wildfire, there had been sightings of a new person, and Grian’s communicator had been buzzing non-stop as the hermits tried to share their info. There wasn’t much, they were incredibly skittish, despite having seen glimpses of their newest member, nobody had managed to get a good look at them, as they would disappear into some hidden corner whenever they were spotted.(My first fic and it’s purely self indulgent OC content, please steer clear if either of those bother you)
Relationships: nope
Comments: 20
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Loreanth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loreanth/gifts).



> Just as a warning, it is very likely this fic will never be finished! As the tags say, I have ADHD, and I write very little, and only in the throes of a very deep hyperfixation. I know not how long this one will last, and I hope as much as you that I will write enough for it to be satisfactory!

‘There was a new Hermit on Hermitcraft!’ The news had spread like wildfire, there had been sightings of a new person, and Grian’s communicator had been buzzing non-stop as the hermits tried to share their info. There wasn’t much, which Grian was a little thankful for, since he did still want to spend time on his mansion, and not just on trying to work out who their new friend was. Which was not to say Grian wasn’t excited, quite the contrary! He was ecstatic at the concept of not being the newest hermit anymore, and of having a new personality in their group, but they still knew so little about their newest arrival that speculation was mostly pointless now.

Her hummed to himself, as he placed blocks down on his mansion, and watched the jungle, reviewing the few facts they knew of the new hermit. 1, they had been around about a week, people had been spotting them ever since the Ender Dragon had been slain. 2, they were incredibly skittish, despite having seen glimpses of their newest member, nobody had managed to get a good look at them, as they would disappear into some hidden corner whenever they were spotted. And 3, they loved to watch people, most of the sightings had reported that they saw two glowing eyes watching them from some shadowy area near their base, and upon investigation, they would see a dark figure fleeing.

There had been a little apprehension at first, about this new person’s intentions. Lurking in the shadows and running away when approached? That’s admittedly very suspicious. But in recent days their newest friend had proved themselves as simply shy. Mumbo managed to kill himself with his elytra, of course, and returned to the spot of his death to find a cyan shulker box with all his stuff in it. Upon questioning the other hermits, they came to the conclusion that it must have been their mysterious shadow person. Which was later mostly confirmed when Mumbo spotted the shadowy figure watching him from the jungle.

The theory was even further backed up when, in an unfortunate accident in The Nether, Cub manage to get himself killed quite a distance away from any nearby portal. He did not believe that he or another hermit would have enough time to collect his items before they disappeared, so he got quite the surprise when he returned to find his items, just like Mumbo’s, stored neatly in a cyan shulker box.

It was pretty much decided from then on that they’d give the newcomer the benefit of the doubt. Nobody could pin them down to try and introduce themselves, or get a name out of them. And they never seemed keen on approaching, even if invited over. It had taken some time for Xisuma to work out how to give them a communicator, if they wouldn’t let others get near them. But he’d settled for leaving it in a cyan shulker box of his own, in the middle of the shopping district with a sign making it clear that it was a gift for their new friend.

As he placed the final block in the row of his mansion, Grian felt his communicator buzz, and couldn’t help excitedly checking to see if it was finally the new hermit making themselves known. He was, unfortunately, quite disappointed, to see that it was just one of the normal hermits asking if anyone had a stack of sand. Grian was about to reply that he did before they sent another message.

StressMonster101: Oh! Nevermind! Our new friend has given me some!  
Grian: Wait really? Did you see them then?  
StressMonster101: No, actually. I heard them land behind me, but before I could turn around I heard them teleport away  
StressMonster101: There was just a pile of sand waiting for me  
StressMonster101: Don’t know where they went, maybe they used some of Scar’s Wizard fruit ;p  
GoodTimesWithScar: Maybe so! Wizard Fruit is powerful stuff!  
Grian: awww too bad, I was hoping to maybe learn their name, it feels wrong to just keep calling them ‘the new hermit’ or ‘the shadow person’  
MumboJumbo: Well, we could give them a nickname for now?

There was a pause in chat then, while they all pondered what they could their shy friend until they were brave enough to tell them their name.

XisumaVoid: Let’s all think on it a while, we wanna give them something nice :)  
MumboJumbo: Yeah! Let’s give it a few days, try and pick up on maybe some more habits or something.


	2. Chapter 2

Grian stretched after a hard day of working on his base, the mansion was a massive project, and he’d run out of materials to build for the day. Tomorrow was going to have to be a resource gathering day, Grian began to whistle sweetly as he walked the small path from his mansion to his jungle base. 

He enjoyed listening to the parrots mimic his tune as he made his way home in the quickly diminishing light. Though some evenings, like today, another voice seemed to join his and the parrots whistling. It sounded similar enough to his own whistling that he might have just dismissed it as his neighbour Scar joining in, except for the slight fuzzy after sound it carried, like the distorted effect of an angry enderman’s scream, but less harsh.

As he walked, he wondered if there was such a thing as friendly endermen. It wouldn’t seem too far fetched an idea, endermen were mostly peaceful so long as you left them alone and didn’t look at them, and he knew that at least 3 of his fellow hermits weren’t human.

Unfortunately, he was so lost in his thoughts on the subject, that he almost didn’t hear the creeper until it was too late. He heard the strangled hissing sound of a creeper being injured, and quickly whirled around, drawing his sword only to see a small pile of gunpowder drop down onto the jungle floor.

He blinked for a moment, before looking upwards into the trees, to find himself staring into two glowing turquoise eyes. They just maintained eye contact for a heartbeat, then two. Before he heard a strangled croaking noise, followed by the signature ‘vwip!’ of ender teleportation, and the eyes (and the shadowy blob of a person) disappeared.

He was left there, staring up at the spot where his mystery saviour had been clinging to the vines on a tree, presumably following him silently. He felt a shudder run up his spine at the thought, but as he looked down at the pile of gunpowder that was once a creeper, he just smiled a little. They clearly meant well, if they’d defend him from a creeper he didn’t know was there, so what was the harm in them observing you?

He bent down and scooped up the gunpowder, before turning and continuing on his way, no longer whistling and this time paying much more attention to his surroundings.

His now brisk pace had him back at his hobbit hole before he could encounter any more problems, and he slipped through the door, lighting the lantern near it, and using it to light his way to his bedroom, where he practically collapsed into it, and was blissfully asleep before the moon had reached it’s zenith.


	3. Chapter 3

He awoke suddenly to the sound of frantic wingbeats outside his bedroom, and when he shifted his head to look out the window, he saw a blur of red, blue and green, and realised it was just a flock of parrots taking off.

Grian let his head relax as he watched blearily out his window, letting his mind wake up fully before sitting up and stretching, and slipping out of bed.

He chatted idly to Professor Beak as he got ready, and ate breakfast, and giggled as his little friend gave him one word answers. He smiled and scratched the bird’s head gently before waving goodbye and stepping out his front door, rockets in hand, prepared to head off to gather some more materials for his mansion. And stopped dead at the sight of a cyan shulker box that was not there the night before.

Curiously, he approached it. There was no sign telling him who this was from, which was pretty unusual since most hermits announced when they left a gift. He frowned a little, a cautiously investigated the area around the box, and, upon finding nothing untoward, he gently eased open the lid.

It was full of gravel, sand and terracotta. He blinked owlishly at the materials, before smiling. He hadn’t mentioned running out of materials to anyone, the previous day. Which meant this was likely a gift from their newest hermit.

He raised his head to look around the jungle, squinting into the foliage to see if he could spot his mysterious benefactor, and upon being unsuccessful, he raised his voice.

“Thank you! This is a very nice gift!” He called, not really expecting a response, and he didn’t get one, nothing but the buzzing and rustling of the usual jungle creatures, but then, he heard it, the soft ‘vwip!’ Of ender magic to his right, and he glanced in that direction, spotting two glowing eyes, hiding in the underbrush, body mostly obscured by shadows and leaves.

Upon making eye contact, there was another brief moment where they were staring at eachother, then, with another small ‘vwip’ the eyes were gone.

Grian smiled to himself, and pulled out his communicator

Grian: Hey guys, our new friend left me a gift!  
Keralis: Really? How generous of them!  
Grian: I think we should call them Ender for now. they seem rather fond of teleporting  
XisumaVoid: Oh, how so?  
Grian: I’ve made eye contact a few times and they always end up teleporting away  
Grian: They must use ender pearls, because I’ve never seen them move or anything  
Grian: they did save me from a creeper last night though  
GoodTimesWithScar: lucky you have someone looking out for you then  
GoodTimesWithScar: those jungle creepers have gotten me a few times, not the most pleasant respawn I must say  
Grian: lol I still haven’t gotten a very good look at them though, but they seem to wear pretty dark clothing  
Grian: I can never spot anything but their eyes and a vague blob shape  
Keralis: Maybe they’re a slime like Jevin?  
StressMonster101: ooooh! that would be nice!

Grian chuckled down at his communicator, seeing all his friends speculating about Ender was pretty amusing, hopefully they’d be confident enough soon to introduce themselves properly.

He pocketed his communicator, and picked up the shulker box he had been gifted, still planning on gathering materials himself that day, he would need a lot more then one shulker box for his mansion.

He began to whistle again, as he made his way to his portal, and found himself joined only by parrots today, no mysterious not quite human whistling, smiling, he realised that that too, must have been Ender.

As he stepped into his portal, the warping sensation made him miss the buzzing of his communicator as Bdubs complained in chat about being startled by Ender, who had nestled themselves in an inconvenient corner to watch him build, and then teleported away upon coming face to face with the excitable hermit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters! That’s more then two! I’m having fun writing this, thank you if you’ve read this far!


	4. Chapter 4

It had been another week on Hermitcraft, and everyone had mostly adjusted to the presence of their shadowy new friend. Any and all doubt about them had been firmly put to rest, and all the hermits were quite convinced that Ender held no ill will.

Ender too, seemed to have adjusted some. They no longer fled at the first sign of being noticed, seeming content to now stay put so long as no hermits physically approached their location. Everyone was now used to giving a greeting wave to the pair of glowing eyes watching them, and did their best not to approach.

The cyan shulker boxes had also become more common, many hermits waking to a gift on their doorstep after a day of Ender watching them. They also seemed keen to follow hermits into dangerous situations, often trailing behind hermits going cave diving or venturing far out from the Nether portals. A few times hermits had heard the sound of mobs been slain behind them, and there were several more cases of items being safely gathered up and left in the location of their death, or perhaps somewhere more convenient, if it were a particularly troublesome trip back.

All in all, despite never having said a word, Ender had quickly become a well liked addition to the community, even if some hermits had some concerns about their health.

Cubfan135: Hey guys when does Ender sleep?  
Cubfan135: They were watching me all day yesterday  
Cubfan135: and this morning there was a shulker box full of materials that would have taken several hours to gather  
Iskall85: That’s a good question  
Iskall85: maybe they sleep during the day sometimes?  
Iskall85: Are they with anyone right now?  
EthosLab: They’re with me right now  
EthosLab: not sleeping it seems  
EthosLab: unless they sleep with their eyes open  
Grian: I mean it’s not impossible  
StressMonster101: Ender!!  
StressMonster101: you need to take care of yourself too!!  
Rendog: uh-oh Stress has entered mother hen mode  
MumboJumbo: it is quite likely that they sleep in short bursts throughout the day  
MumboJumbo: maybe that’s why they like watching others more then building themselves?  
Grian: being able to take naps whenever you want would be nice  
StressMonster101: you say that but I’ve seen you getting chased by big hoards of phantoms  
StressMonster101: you need to sleep more yourself!

Grian paled a little as the focus of the conversation shifted onto him, Mumbo ratted him out by telling Stress that he’s been up all night last night doing work on the mansion, and Stress practically threatened to spawn camp him if he didn’t sleep that night, and later on, as he was extinguishing his lamp to go to sleep for the night, he saw a pair of glowing eyes turn away, and a shadowy figure expertly scale to the top of the jungle canopy.

Clearly, Ender has been making sure Stress wouldn’t have to follow through on her threat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you happen to have ideas for interactions between the hermits, or between the hermits and Ended, please share! I’m all ears, and the more inspiration I have the more likely I am to keep writing,


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild warning for a little bit of gore near the end of this chapter! It’s not bad, just a quick mention of rather a lot of blood, but if that’ll upset you, skip the paragraph that starts with ‘ All in all, Mumbo was certain he wouldn’t be sleeping soundly for at least a week.’

Mumbo Jumbo was going caving. Usually he preferred to strip mine when he needed resources, but that gets old after a while, so he was changing things up today. It helped that he had company, of course.

Ender might not have been the best conversation partner, given that they seemed unwilling or unable to talk, even via communicator, but they had a comforting presence to them. Sure, they lagged behind a bit, darting from shadow to shadow, crevice to crevice, but Mumbo felt secure in the knowledge that he would never have to fear being surprised from behind.

As they traversed through the caves, Mumbo could hear Ender’s steps behind them, they were light footed, but seemed to step heavily intentionally so that he’d know where they were, but occasionally they’d forget for a while, and their footsteps would all but disappear unless Mumbo actively stopped and strained to hear them.

Additionally, Ender proved quite swift at hiding, if Mumbo ever turned back around suddenly and they were in the open, he would never get to see much more then a black blur or vaguely humanoid figure before they darted into a hiding place or teleported behind him.

It had come to the hermit’s attention that Ender’s name was more apt then they first intended, they seemed naturally able to teleport, like a proper Enderman. The soft ‘vwip’ of Ender moving position was a familiar sound to most hermits now, but especially the ones that Ender accompanied on adventures.

Mumbo spotted a small stream up ahead, and as he neared it with torch in hand, saw that it was trickling down a ledge, and there was a tunnel he could fit through. He hopped the stream, then hoisted himself up the ledge, placing a torch at the top before continuing forwards.

A few footsteps and some scrabbling from behind him of what was clearly Ender climbing the small ledge, and he heard a small splash and what was clearly a chitter of displeasure, and he paused.

“Are you okay Ender?” He asked, without turning, and received and slightly upset but affirmative huff in response.

“Not a fan of water?” He asked, and received no more response then that, which wasn’t unusual in the slightest, responses from Ender were given only when deemed necessary.

He supposed it made sense though, if they were in someway related to endermen then a dislike of water seemed reasonable. And furthermore, Jevin and Impulse were the hermits who saw Ender the least, it would make sense for them to avoid the primarily ocean based hermits if they didn’t like getting wet.

“I’ll do my best to avoid water in the future.” He said jovially, Ender happily tailed him anywhere, it seemed only polite to avoid the one thing they seemed to dislike.

They walked a while more in silence, and Mumbo listened to Ender’s footsteps fading in and out as they remembered to try and walk louder, then got distracted and let their footfalls return to their natural lightness.

Ender had quite a long stride, Mumbo realised, possibly longer then his own, and he was one of the taller hermits.

Eventually the tunnel they were in became wider, and from there it quickly opened up into a cave, he heard Ender’s footsteps stop, then heard them shuffle backwards a bit and duck into a small alcove they had just passed, hiding themself away so that Mumbo could explore the cave freely.

A few minutes in the cave revealed it to be mostly a dead end, there was a sizeable vein of coal in the wall near the ceiling that had taken a bit of effort to get to, but this seemed to be the end of this part of the cave system. He’d have to dig a new tunnel into the next cave.

He sighed a little as he hopped down from the ledge the coal vein had left, and hopped over the stream that flowed through the middle of cave, and sat down on a large boulder over the other side, setting down a torch nearby that illuminated most of the cave, but left where the coal used to be shrouded in shadows.

“We’re gonna take a break here for a few minutes!” He called to Ender, and a few moments later he heard the sound of teleportation and saw Ender’s eyes in the darkness of the coal vein. This was normal, he’d make sure Ender had a nearby place before sitting down and having a drink and eating something small before continuing on.

“Mobs have been pretty quiet today.” Mumbo noted casually as he got his water out. It wasn’t entirely unusual to have a quiet day of mining, though he wished it was maybe a little more exciting, if only for his silent companion, following someone through dark tunnels all day wasn’t the most interesting activity.

After he finished drinking he pulled out his communicator to check what the other hermits had been saying, though it had mostly been a pretty quiet day, just some idle chatter.

With a pleasant hum, he slipped his communicator into his pocket again, and slipped off his rock.

“I’m planning on tunnelling until we hit another cave.” Mumbo informed his companion, before once again hopping over the stream and starting his new tunnel across the cave and slightly to the right of the tunnel they had entered from.

Once he had tunnelled far enough, he heard the soft thud of Ender slipping onto the ground, and then again heard their footsteps as they followed him into the tunnel.

Maybe half an hour later, he could feel Ender getting restless behind him, he could hear them shuffling their feet more, and they huffed nervously every once in a while, but when he asked them if they wanted to turn back, he only got a dismissive and slightly frustrated grunt.

After he brought attention to it, he could also feel them trying to prevent themselves from showing their discomfort, which was pretty odd. Usually if Ender was upset by something, or just wanted to leave, then they left.

One or two hermits had reported Ender just... putting down the materials they had helped gather (which was mostly mob drops, but they managed to find and somehow quietly mine some minerals) and just leaving. Just straight up disappearing. Even if they were at bedrock level (actually, especially if they were at bedrock level), 12 or more hours into a spelunking session and so far away from where they started they might have been on a whole new continent. If Ender wanted to leave, then Ender left. Simple as.

Which meant Ender probably didn’t know what was agitating them, and that was worrying. But he also wasn’t quite ready to turn back yet, so he kept digging. And that was a mistake.

After almost another half hour of mining, they finally discovered what had been upsetting Ender. As Mumbo broke yet another stone block, he finally broke into that cave he had been hoping to find. And was met with at least a dozen pairs of glowing purple eyes.

It didn’t take long for the hoard of endermen to notice the intruders, and Mumbo felt his blood run cold as he watched the endermen that were visible in the light of the torch open their mouths, skin stretching uncomfortably far in order to display all of their sharp, needle-like teeth. And then the wailing started.

That horrible, staticky wail that was just as much inside your mind as it was physical was enough to make anyone want to cover their ears and shove their head into a vacuum cleaner.

Just as Mumbo was about to draw his sword, he felt Ender grab the collar of his jacket and yank him backwards, bringing him sharply away from the entrance to the cave, then he heard the vwip and saw their turquoise eyes, standing behind the pack of endermen, and for one horrible, stomach dropping moment, he thought he was done for, that Ender was going to let the endermen rip him apart while they made their escape.

And then, came the roar. While a normal enderman’s wail was unpleasant (and a dozen of them, significantly worse), it was nothing compared to the sound Ender made. It was one part roar that reminded him of the ender dragon, one part the squealing of nails on a chalkboard or of claws over glass, and one part horrible fizzing static that was as much a sensation that made his skin crawl as it was a sound heard in body and mind. Even though it did nothing he instinctively dropped his pickaxe and clapped his hands over his ears, stumbling back a few more steps, before tripping over and landing on his ass.

The sound lasted only three heartbeats, but it had an immense effect on the endermen. Some of them immediately teleported away, and the rest turned from Mumbo to look at Ender.

As for Mumbo himself, he was rather stunned after that, his ears were ringing and he was quite disoriented, so much so that he didn’t even notice the room Ender and the endermen were in darkening.

When he finally got his wits back, he leapt to his feet, drawing his sword and holding a torch with his other hand, ready to rush in to help Ender. But as he walked forward he felt his torch hand get stopped by the darkness. There was nothing there, he knew there was nothing there because there was just inky blackness, and the still clearly audible sounds of a fight with endermen, their pained cries, and what sounded like the occasional yelp from Ender, but when he pushed against the darkness, it didn’t give, even when he pushed the flaming tip of the torch directly into the darkness, it just felt like pushing against some horrible kind of membrane. When he tried to plunge his sword into it, it still did not give.

Eventually he put the sword down, and pressed his bare hand into the shadows. It was an interesting, but pretty creepy feeling. It had give to it, almost like flesh, or maybe a really really dense liquid. And it was freezing. Like someone had consolidated all the cold in the cavern beyond into this one spot. The creep factor was increased also by the fact that now most of the endermen screams had turned into nothing more then pained whimpers, skittering around the corners of his mind like timid animals.

Unfortunately for Mumbo, his hand was still against the wall when it came down, the shadows slithering away from his hand like living creatures as light returned to the cave, and her heard a soft ‘vwip’ followed by a solid thump and then the sound of skin sliding against stone as Ender reappeared behind him and sank down onto the ground. Mumbo also let his shaking legs fall out from under him.

“Are you okay?” He asked, after a few heartbeats, as he listened to Ender’s panting. He got a sound of affirmation that was half huff, half wheeze.

“Do you need a healing potion?” He offered, and got a grunt of denial. He gave them one anyway, passing it to them behind his back without looking. And he heard them uncork it, followed by the slosh of liquid as they brought it to their lips to drink. And then they just sat there for a few minutes. Ender recovering physically from their fight, and Mumbo recovering mentally from what was likely the most harrowing experience of his life.

Endermen were the creepiest mob. They were just humanoid enough that on a dark night, or in a dark cave, one might mistake them for a person. But in the light, one could see that they were unnaturally tall, with gaunt, almost emaciated physiques and arms that were simply too long to be anything but viscerally unnerving, their faces, which were almost human, were fine until you angered them, and then you’d find out that their mouth could stretch all the way to their jaw hinge, enabling them to open their mouths wider then anyone would think possible.

To top it off, the lower portion of their legs wasn’t even remotely human, instead they had thin, digitigrade feet, with three toes tipped with long, razor sharp claws. Their hands too, had three fingers, in addition to opposable thumbs, again, tipped with razor sharp claws.

Their skin was always inky black, but with a slight green or purple shimmer, and while on first contact the skin might not seem too weird, it acted similar to a non-Newtonian fluid, hardening when pressure was applied, meaning that unless you had a sharp implement on you, winning a fight against an enderman was an unlikely feat.

All in all, Mumbo was certain he wouldn’t be sleeping soundly for at least a week. While Ender continued to rest, Mumbo pulled himself to his feet, grabbed his torch, and took a few steps into the cave, before immediately wishing he hadn’t. Endermen didn’t leave much behind when they were killed, unlike zombies and skeletons, upon death, an enderman’s body dissolved. But as most hermits knew from regular weapon maintenance, anything that was no longer touching the main enderman, did not. And there was oily black blood everywhere. Along with a few shards of enderpearls, and, oh god, a severed arm.

Mumbo decided it was wiser to back out of the cave again, then stick around and see if he could find anything else that was worse then that.

“Do you think you can make it to the surface?” He asked, now wanting to be as far from this cave as physically possible, he got an affirmative grunt, and heard Ender hauling themselves to their feet, then teleporting around the corner of the cave so Mumbo could turn and walk back the way they came.

As they walked down the long tunnel, Mumbo shakily got out his communicator and typed a message for his friends

MumboJumbo: word of advice  
MumboJumbo: never make Ender angry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this chapter like, 20 words off of doubling the word count for this entire fic? Yes, yes it is. Do I care? No, I do not.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone interested in my Endermen headcanons, there will be a comment at the end of this chapter talking about Endermen feet! (Why? Because ADHD just be like that)

Grian grimaced as he stepped out of the portal and into the Nether, even on the Nether roof, the rising heat was stifling. But! The barge need more glowstone, so he just had to live with it.

Just as he was about to head on down to the Nether proper, he heard the familiar ‘vwip’ and light thud from just above his head, along with an affectionate chitter of greeting.

“Ender!” He said chipperly, greeting the hermit who was currently perched on his Nether portal without turning around.

“Just dropping by or are you coming with?” He asked, his answer being a delighted trill and a gentle ruffling of his hair. It seemed he had a companion today.

“Well then, we’d better hurry, we have quite a ways to go to find more glowstone!” Grian informed them before setting off. He smiled at how quickly Ender followed them, after the incident with Mumbo and the endermen they had been extra nervous for a while, but once they seemed sure that really everything was fine and Mumbo still liked having them around, they had grown even more confident then before.

Of course, Ender still hated the idea of being seen, but they were much more comfortable with other hermits being near them, and had even started initiating physical contact. Never anything big, small touches here and there, and hand on the shoulder, or plucking a leaf out of someone’s hair (or sometimes, putting a leaf in someone’s hair) they also followed people much more closely when they followed them on adventures.

As they walked, Grian chatted to Ender idly, receiving chitters and chirps in response. That was the other big change, Ender was more vocal, which really let the others see why they were so hesitant in the first place, it wasn’t so noticeable when it was just the occasional noise, but when holding an extended conversation with them, you really felt that fuzzy, staticky sound.

It had taken adjusting to, definitely, it was strange, having sounds and feelings in our mind that weren’t physically there, very hard to describe to anyone who hadn’t experienced it, or something like it. But there had been an unexpected upside, Ender seemed to be something of an empath, in amongst the fizzy static there were clear feelings, affection, gratitude, anxiety. It suddenly made a lot of sense why everyone always felt at ease around Ender, they literally radiated comfort and protection.

Soon, they made it to the open portion of the Nether, and Grian readied their fireworks

“Race you to the unexplored areas!” Grian challenged, sticking around only just long enough to hear Ender’s warble of surprise, before he was off, rocketing towards the area he had decided to explore today.

Truthfully, none of the hermits really knew how Ender kept pace with them while they were flying, they never heard them use rockets, nor heard the sounds of elytra, and while no-one ever intentionally looked, enough hermits had had to do some quick turns to lose speed that one of them should’ve caught a glimpse of them, but nobody had. And yet, whenever Ender’s hermit of the day landed, Ender was never more then a few seconds behind, seemingly appearing out of nowhere with a warm trill to let their friend know they had made it.

Most hermits had decided it must be some form of teleportation, which meant Grian was actually likely to lose this race. And, sure enough, as he neared the area where he was intending to land, he began to slow, and that gave him a wonderful view of some shadows, skittering towards an already quite dark crevice, and he watched as they seemed to become so dark as to almost be absorbing light from around them, before sudden,y subsiding again, most shadows receding back to their usual location, but some few still clung to Ender, as their glowing eyes made eye contact with Grian, and a wave of staticky smugness washed over his mind.

As he slowly descended, he idly realised that this explained two things, Ender’s ability to get places fast, and how they always managed to stay obscured in the shadows, no matter the lighting around them.

When his feet finally made contact with the netherrack, Grian gave a slightly sheepish laugh.

“Guess I should’ve guessed I wouldn’t win this one.” He chuckled, as Ender began to give a pleased rumble from the shadows

“But still, can’t blame me for trying.” He said with a shrug, before turning and starting to walk further into the Nether

“Now! We have work to do!” He declared, and Ender gave a warble of agreement, before bounding to catch up with him, and they continued on together.

After a few hours of gathering glowstone, Grian finally deemed that they had enough for the barge.

“You ready to head back?” He asked Ender, who seemed to be greatly enjoying their time together, and got an affirmative trill.

“I won’t bother challenging you to a race this time, I think we both know that you’ll beat me there.” He said, with another chuckle, as he readied his fireworks to take off while Ender hummed with pride.

He took off again with an explosion, and sped back the way they had come, speeding with perhaps too much wild abandon until he passed where he had landed earlier, and out over the sea of lava.

Until he heard an awful tearing sound, that every hermit with an elytra knew and feared, and he began to plummet.

For a few, horrible seconds, he was sure that this was the end, he was going to die like a fool, because he hadn’t been keeping an eye on how his elytra were doing, and he was going to lose hours of glowstone gathering.

The he heard someone (Ender?) scream his name, and panic and desperation crashed into him like a tidal wave, sweeping away his thoughts and disorienting him further as the need to fly, fly, fly pounded in his head like a staccato rhythm. Instinctively he tried to stretch wings that weren’t there, reached out with his mind in an attempt to grab something, but nothing was there, just him, falling towards the lava, the heat growing more unbearable with every shuddering heartbeat.

And then he felt arms wrap around his torso, going under his arms, and crossing over his chest to grab his shoulders. He felt claws, digging into skin, though thankfully his sweater prevent them from being more then an uncomfortable pressure as he heard the sound of wings unfurling, and their descent slowed.

Safe, safe, safe. The feelings washed over him again, Ender’s relief heightening his own, he was safe now, she had him, she’d take him to safety. Ender began beating her wings, and they started rising.

As they flew back to safety, Grian felt his emotions becoming more his own again, but he could still feel Ender’s. Relief, adrenaline, dread. He found it easier to focus on the physical, looking towards the cliff they were approaching, watching as Ender’s Draconic looking wings flapped in and out of the corners of his vision, the beating o his heart, or of Ender’s heart against his back, both were pounding.

Unfortunately, Grian was still stunned as they were landing, Ender flying up and then shifting her angle so that she landed upright, and could place Grian directly on his feet. Then he felt her arms let go, and he realised with a jolt what was about to happen, he whirled around, calling Ender’s name, stretching out a hand to try and grab her. But she was already gone, the only sign of her the floating green particles and the sound of her teleporting away.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been three full days since anyone had last seen Ender. Grian thankfully had had a second pair of elytra in his ender chest, and had made it back safely, but without his saviour.

When a day passed, and nobody had reported seeing Ender, he had asked around, and sure enough, there were no reports because there were no sightings.

On the second day, he had told everyone what happened, and everyone starting looking for her while they worked.

On the third day, the hermits had decided to actively search for her, checking her usual haunts around their bases, before venturing further out, looking for any sort of sign of her.

Now it was the fourth day, and the hermits were all sure that she wasn’t in the overworld. Which meant she was either still in the Nether, or had made her way to the End. Grian didn’t know which was more likely, on one hand, Ender clearly had ties to the realm closest to the void, but on the other, the End had always been the one place she refused to follow hermits.

In the end, the hermits had agreed to send a few people to each dimension, in order to search them. And while logically Grian should’ve gone with the Nether group, something had compelled him to volunteer to explore the End. He reasoned that less people were keen on going into the End and then splitting up.

There was a reason hermits almost always end busted in pairs, being so close to void was unsettling, it’s presence would coil around your mind, whispering words in a language that nobody quite understood, it would always try to pull you down, down into the darkness, and quite a few hermits had found themselves drifting down into the void instead of flying to the next end city. Having a companion to talk to helped drown out the whispers and keep you grounded, it gave you something physical to focus on in the unrelenting darkness of the End.

But the End was also vast, and if Ender was in there somewhere, they would have to split up to have any hope of finding her.

Grian sighed, as he walked up the stairs to the portal, the other hermits that had agreed to search the end, Xisuma, Iskall and Etho, had already gone through the portal, and he was the last one left in the ruined stronghold. He paused for a moment, staring into the rippling portal, watching as the almost liquid like magic settled out again, and once again looked like someone had cut a chunk out of the night sky and brought it down to earth. Then he inhaled, and stepped off the edge, feeling the voice of the void settle in comfortably around his mind, almost purring with happiness.

He stumbled a little, as his feet suddenly found solid ground and his vision return to him, and he felt Iskall’s gloved hand steady him. He blinked blearily up at his friend for a few moments, mind adjusting to the added pressure of the void, was it just him or was it’s pull unusually strong, it’s words seeming to almost make sense, even as he tried to push them away.

“Dude are you okay?” Upon hearing Iskall’s voice, the void seemed to recede and Grian nodded shakily

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry, it just hit me unusually hard today.” He said, as he tried to breath slow, and he lent into Iskall’s hand a bit more

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Iskall asked worriedly “I’m sure one of the hermits in the Nether group would be willing to trade places.”

Grian shook his head, the action clearing it enough for him to stand on his own “no, no it’s fine. I just needed a bit longer to adjust. I should be good now.” He gave Iskall an easy grin, but the other hermits didn’t look any less worried.

“If you say so man.” Xisuma said, “but seriously, if you feel like you need to turn back, do it. Death by void is not a pleasant way to go.” Every hermit had fallen into the void at least once, and it was ranked pretty high up on the list of ‘awful ways to die’.

Grian shuddered but nodded “yeah, yeah. I’ll be careful.” He agreed before turning to hop onto the main end island. This island, unlike most, was kept well lit by the hermits, and probably housed the only light sources for miles in any direction.

The group of four walked towards the portal in the middle, where they paused and discussed which directions each of them would search in. Grian opted to search the east, and Xisuma handed each of the other hermits three night vision potions. They would allow them to see in the dark, so that they could find an island to land on and refresh their elytra or rockets if either was running low.

Grian walked away from the other hermits, and in his chosen direction, and upon reaching the edge of the island, he lept off and rocketed away. The light from the island quickly grew dim, then disappeared all together, leaving Grian alone in darkness so thick, he wouldn’t have been able to see his nose if it hadn’t been for the dim light his enchanted armour cast.

After a few minutes of flying in the isolating darkness, the void returned to his mind full force, joyous whispers and an incessant tugging pulling him forwards, forwards.

The princess was waiting for him.

Grian’s mind jolted at that, that thought was most certainly not his own, and the delighted tittering of the void confirmed it. If he was beginning to understand the void, then that could not be a good thing.

He had to fly for a while more, feeling the void pulling him along, smugness and condescension coiling near the base of his neck, almost feeling like they were choking him. In a way, it was similar to Ender’s empathy, the emotions were distinctly seperate from his own, but they lacked the fuzzy static, or the warm comfort the Ender’s emotions carried, tainted instead with maniacal giggling and mischievous glee.

But then he spotted a light on the horizon, and with the use of a firework, changed his course towards it. He heard the displeased hiss of the void, and felt the pulling in his mind double, trying to yank him back on course, but he persisted, flying towards the end city as fast as he could use his rockets. As he flew into the light, he could see the tendrils of shadows that had coiled around him letting go, and the voice of the void lessened as he alighted on the roof of the tallest tower.

He sat down suddenly, finally feeling free to breath, as he watched the shadows dance and coil, trying to reach for him but being unable to. The void hissed in displeasure, and simultaneously crooned sweetly, the sound of what might have been a lullaby dancing between Grian’s ears as the void tried to lure him back in.

He sat there for several minutes, just watching and listening, fighting the urge to take off and fly back into the inky darkness, before he managed to pull out his communicator and type in his coordinates, sending his location to the other hermits for future reference, in case he needed help, or just for later on when another hermit needed shulker shells.

He sat and watched his communicator ping, as her,it’s thanked him for the coordinates and the rest of the Nether and End teams took this as a moment to check in. None of the other hermits had seen or felt anything unusual it seemed.

Grian shuddered and hugged his knees to his chest, grateful for his thick sweater. The End was unbearably cold to most, but his choice of warm attire made it more bearable to him then to others. The void’s crooning slowly stopped as it seemed to realise that that tactic wasn’t working, and Grian felt it tug on his mind again

‘Come, come’ the warping voice whispered ‘the princess awaits, the void will bring you, the void takes care of what belongs to it’ the words tumbled over themselves in his mind, melding together and making it hard to tell what was being said, but the mental tugging grew stronger

Grian kept his head down and tried to focus on breathing, the void had returned to chittering in that unknown language. He thought over its words though, it wanted to bring him somewhere, to see someone? Was the princess Ender? Grian glanced at his coordinates on the communicator, he was still above the height limit that the hermits felt was safe. He hadn’t been dragged into the dangerous part of the void yet, which was usually where the pull led you. Maybe it really was trying to be helpful?

Grian shook the thought from his head, trusting the void was how it got you, but Grian also couldn’t ignore the possibility of The Princess being Ender. He would have to make his choice, turn back now, and fight against the void to make it back to the overworld, or let it take him where it wanted.

He decided to follow the void, he didn’t want to be the first hermit to turn back, especially not when it was his own foolish blunder that had caused this situation in the first place, so he got out his ender chest, and took off all his armour, putting all his valuables in the chest, taking only his elytra, rockets and food. If he was going to risk following the void, then he didn’t want to lose his stuff.

Seeming to sense that Grian had decided to follow it, the whispers of the void died down, leaving only a gleefully smug feeling, and that same, unceasing pull. Grian picked up his ender chest, closed his eyes, and followed it, into the darkness.

Now that the void knew it was getting what it wanted, it remained calm, only distantly purring and pulling Grian along, along, along, for what felt like hours, he flew in darkness, losing his sense of time and direction, the cold nipping at his skin, his fingers, his face.

And then he saw them, the lights up ahead, more numerous then any end city he had ever seen, and he felt the pull of the void lessen. This was their destination.

As he neared, he saw that unlike the end cities they usually raided, which were only on or two towers, inhabited only by shulkers and surrounded by a few stray endermen, this was more akin to a village, many individual buildings, with figures milling around between them, and a few figures drifting through the skies on elytra.

The island was arranged in four tiers, each one getting higher. The outermost tier was full of chorus plants, and some people who seemed to be tending to the plants. The next tier seemed to be for places of commerce, people milled about, going from place to place with a sense of duty to them. The next tier was residential, people talked outside of homes, children played in the streets and people seemed to have a jovial mood about them. And the final, innermost tier, was a small, castle like structure, it was definitely the largest building on the island, but it wasn’t even close to the size of Grian’s own mansion.

As he coasted toward the island, he heard a sharp whistle below and to his left, and he turned his head to make eye contact with the person who had noticed him, the waved an arm, beckoning them to land on the platform jutting out the side of the tower they were at the top of. Grian hesitated a moment, but he heard the void purr in the back of his mind ‘my children will not hurt you’ it assured, and Grian sighed, he had come this far.

He angled himself downwards, and landed softly on the platform just as the strange person who had whistled to him stepped out of the door. Grian felt his eyes go wide as he took in their appearance. They seemed to be some sort of human enderman hybrid. Their face and torso seemed mostly human, save for their eyes. Sclera, iris and pupil were all a shade of teal, and the added glowing of their eyes made it even harder to distinguish. Their hands and feet however, were almost exactly like that of an enderman, their feet were small paws with three large claws, and their hands had only three long fingers in addition to their thumb, each ending in the sharp, needle fine point typical of an enderman’s hands.

Their clothes were all shades of purple, a dark shirt and pants, their pants were held up by an ornate braided belt, which was decorated with green and blue beads, and they had a bright purple hooded shawl on, that covered the upper half of their arms.

The man raised his hand in greeting and gave a smile that went from jaw hinge to jaw hinge, displaying his fearsome set of sharp teeth. “⍑ᒷꖎꖎ𝙹 ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ!!” He spoke in that same language the void had been speaking when Grian first stepped into the end, and Grian didn’t understand a word of it.

His confusion and panic must have been evident on his face, because the other man’s eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his hand and cleared his throat sheepishly, “uh... sorry.” The man tried again, his voiced hissed and crackled with static, and Grian’s mind echoed the words in the other language.

“I haven’t really gotten to greet any リᒷ∴ᓵ𝙹ᒲᒷ∷ᓭ before.” He winced a little, when he said a word in the other language “it’s been so long since we’ve had someone who couldn’t uh... hear? Voidspeak. I may have forgotten some words.” He seemed genuinely apologetic.

He then held his hand out to Grian “I am Victor!” He introduced himself, smiling again, but seemingly trying not to smile, literally, ear to ear.

Grian hesitantly took his hand, and was pleasantly surprised when he found it to be quite warm. Victor gave his hand a firm but gentle shake, then let go. “I’m Grian.” He introduced himself “the uh... the void brought me here. I think? It said something about a princess?”

At that, Victor’s eyes went comically wide “you heard the ⍊𝙹╎↸ so clearly?” He asked in wonder “your connection with it must be strong if it speaks to you without you being able to ⚍リ↸ᒷ∷ᓭℸ ̣ ᔑリ↸ Voidspeak!” Victor leaned closer to Grian, with an almost childlike eagerness, and Grian held up his hands and took a step back

“I-I wouldn’t go that far. It really seemed desperate to bring me here to meet ‘The Princess’ is all, and I didn’t listen until it spoke” he said defensively, and Victor took a guilty step back from, though he still looked excited as he nodded

“That’s how... many? of us get brought here. Though we usually have more experience with the void first.” Victor explained before seeming to realise something “you... you probably have no idea what we are, do you?” Grian shook his head

“Right. Well.” Victor cleared his throat again. Before gesturing over the rail of the balcony they were on down to the ground. Grian followed his lead and looked over it, into the residential district. And he saw more people like Victor, with varying degrees of human to enderman ratios, some looked almost completely human, only one or two unusual features giving them away, and others Grian would swear were literally just endermen.

Victor walked up beside him, also looking down into the town “we are the Voidcallers.” He explained. “As you probably know there are many different sources of magic throughout the worlds. The void is one of them. We are people who researched the void, drew upon it, moulded it to our wills. And it in turn, moulded us.” He raised his hand, and wiggled his fingers for added emphasis.

“It called to us, brought us together. Gave us our Queen and our Princess. And it protects us. In return, we continue to use it, drawing upon its magic, and letting it live inside our souls. We keep it company. We do it’s bidding, and it does ours. We belong to it, and it belongs to us.”

He looked up at Grian again “can you remember exactly what the void said to you?” He frowned as he thought back, the words had been jumbled, and trying to work out the exact phrasing was difficult.

“Uh... it said that The Princess was waiting for me, that it would bring me to them, that it takes care of what belongs to it.” He offered, and Victor nodded thoughtfully, closing his eyes and seeming to think that over.

“It would seem likely then, that you were not brought here because of a prior connection to the void, but rather The Princess.” He decided “in which case, I should bring you to see her.”

Grian felt his hopes rise, it felt more and more likely that The Princess was in fact Ender, “I would like to meet her, if I could.” Grian asked hopefully, and Victor smiled at him, slightly teasingly

“What did I just say? I’m *supposed* to bring you to her.” He said jokingly. Before gesturing for Grian to follow him into the tower.

The tower was pretty small, but the inside was very well lit, thanks to the only feature being a ladder made out of end rods, which Victor began climbing dow nimbly. When they got to the bottom, Grian almost jumped out of his skin when he turned to leave and was met with a shulker watching him from its open shell.

He heard Victor laughing “I see you have experience with wild shulkers.” He choked out through his laughter, and Grian glared at him “sorry, sorry!” He said placatingly as his chuckles tapered off “I should have warned you. You have nothing to fear from the shulkers here, they’re all... wonderfully? friendly.”

Grian gave him a quizzical look as they began to walk, Victor leading him through the streets with ease “why do you have friendly shulkers?” He asked, and Victor shrugged, “three reasons. 1 they’re cute. 2 most creatures aren’t made to survive in the end, we don’t have many options for pets. And 3, we use their ability to give levitation to get up ladders faster. That’s why that shulker was there, if you were going up, you’d have gotten an orb, and then you could pull yourself up easier and faster then you could climb.”

He gestured to a yard they were passing, where there was a kid pulling themself up a ladder at breakneck speeds, climbing into what looked like a treehouse but nestled into the branches of two chorus plants instead.

“Kids get brought here?” Grian asked, and Victor shook his head “all of the cubs are born here. Just because we were changed by the void doesn’t mean we can’t make families.”

They walked for a minutes then in silence, Victor leading them through the winding paths to get to... wherever they were going, and Grian looking around him curiously. At one point he made eye contact with one of those who looked fully enderman, and was slightly startled when all they did was give him a horrifying smile and a wave.

“What’s the difference between these endermen and the others?” Grian asked cautiously, and almost immediately wished he hadn’t. Victor grimaced, before sighing.

“Less then you think.” He said after another moment of silence “everyone he is a Voidcaller, not an enderman. What we call Endermen are either voidcallers that lost their mind, or ones that were born like that, to their feral parents.”

Victor seemed resigned to it, he shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not often we lose voidcallers to insanity. But it does happen. Usually the older ones, the void gives us a long physical life, but human minds simply aren’t made to live that long. And sometimes... the void is just too much for a person, it is vast, there is more magic in the void then the city could use. Ever. And not everyone can handle it.”

Grian felt bad for asking about a sensitive topic, so decided to ask a hopeful,t less loaded question. “How long have you been living here?”

Victor looked thoughtful, then shrugged “a century? Maybe two. It’s had to tell how much time has passed when there’s no days or nights. Everyone just operates on their own schedules here.”

That was.... really old, but before Grian could say anything, Victor gestured ahead of him “here we are, the steps into the keep.” He said grandly “Queen Siarelth and Princess Eladrin are in here.”

As he followed Victor up the steps, Grian began to feel nervous, what if this wasn’t Ender? What would he do? What if it was? The void had brought him here, had said she wanted to see him, but he knew Ender was extraordinarily shy, what if she didn’t appreciate him coming to her home?

He pushed those thoughts out of his head as Victor opened one of the large doors, revealing the grand hall inside. There were tables set up in two rows, on either side of the door, leading up to a set of steps, and, even from the doorway, Grian could see what was at the top of the steps. An Ender Dragon.

When the door had opened their head had been bowed, as if looking down at something, but as Victor and Grian stepped into the hall, he watched their head rise up, turning to watch them with bright, glowing lime green eyes.

The hall itself was awash in dim purple light, the only light sources in the hall were six end crystals, 3 on either side, in sconces atop pillars.

Victor stayed silent as they approached the dragon, but when Grian crested the stairs, he gasped, realising that the dragon wasn’t alone. In between their forelegs, was another dark figure who Grian hadn’t seen due to a mix of the angle, and of their dark features blending in with the dragon behind them. But staring at him were two, unmistakable glowing turquoise eyes.

Victor kneeled beside him “your majesties, the void has guided someone here to see you.” Grian quickly followed his lead, kneeling beside him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Ender, who was just sitting there, looking at him like she’d seen a ghost.

They all stayed like that for a few seconds, before the dragon moved their head, nudging Ender in the back with their snout, and making the girl lurch to her feet.  
“∷-∷╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ , ||ᒷᓭ 𝙹⎓ ᓵ𝙹⚍∷ᓭᒷ” Grian heard her muttering in Voidspeak, before she took a deep breath, and cautiously walked towards Grian and Victor.

She looked a lot like Victor, her feet were small paws, and her hands only has theee fingers. Her legs had that same black skin up to just past her knees, and then it quickly faded into pale human skin, it was past her elbows on her arms too. Her eyes were the same, just a different shade of blue-green to Victor’s, and her mouth seemed to be able to stretch just as far, judging by her nervous smile.

However, she had additional features. Most notably her wings and tail. Her draconic wings were mostly dark, but when she stood still in front of Grian and Victor, and drew herself up to her full height, she flared open her wings, and Grian could see a nebula like pattern scattered on the inside of her wings. It reminded him of the end portal, shifting and twinkling in shades of blue and green.

She also had a set of horns protruding from her temples, they swept back in graceful waves, and ended in an upwards point. Her black hair was long and straight, cascading down her shoulders like a waterfall of ink. Her arms and legs were also slightly different to Victor’s, while his were perfectly smooth, hers bore scale like shapes, though he could tell they weren’t actual scales, unlike the Ender dragon behind her.

And to top off her rather regal visage, she wore clothes of all black, a shirt, and shorts that stopped before her knees, along with a half skirt on her right hip, and a hooded shawl similar to Victor’s but with the hood worn down. When she opened her wings, glowing turquoise patterns on her skirt and shawl flared to life, dozens of eyes, and twisting tendrils spread out over the cloth.

But despite her trying to make herself look grand and regal, Grian could see the fear in her eyes, the way her wings trembled, how she was only breathing shallowly, silently.

“Greetings, Grian.” She said, and it was hard to hear the way her voice trembled, thanks to the static, and his mind echoing her words in Voidspeak. She made a gesture with her hand, and Victor stood, so Grian followed suit.

“What brings you to Xassuiria?” She asked nervously, avoiding making eye contact with him by smiling at Victor instead.

“I was looking for you.” He informed her, and she nodded, before properly looking at Victor, making eye contact with him.

“Victor, thank you for bringing him here. I will handle everything from here. You may return to your duties.” She informed him kindly. And he bowed

“At once, my Princess.” He agreed, before pivoting on his foot, and teleporting away.

And now it was just Grian, Ender- no Eladrin, and Siarelth.

Eladrin furled her wings again, and the glowing patterns on her clothes dissolved back into darkness, though now he could see the slightly darker fabric that showed where they would be. She also hunched over, making herself seem smaller then she really was, and she finally made eye contact with Grian. There was so much fear in her eyes.

“What do you want?” She asked meekly, and Grian blinked at her

“Pardon?”

“Why did you come here? You must want something pretty badly if you’re willing to track me all the way out here. So, what do you want? Knowledge? A pact? My Pearl?” Her voice broke slightly, on that last one “name your price and it will be yours. You just have to swear not to hurt my people.”

Grian’s heart broke a little, was this why she never wanted to show herself, even when she seemed to be getting along so well with the others? She was afraid they would turn on her? Try and hurt her and her people?

“Ender-“ he was cut off

“Eladrin” she corrected,

“Eladrin. We would never hurt you or your people. Haven’t you been reading your communicator? We’re all worried sick about you. We’ve been looking for you for days. We just wanted to know that you were okay. You’re our friend.”

Eladrin looked like she didn’t know what to say to that, he could see tears gathering in her eyes, relief on her face mixed with confusion, like she couldn’t quite comprehend that they *didn’t* want to hurt her.

Grian stepped forward, carefully, and opened his arms, “c’mhere.” He said gently and she cautiously leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her, and after a few moments, she did the same to him, in addition to enveloping him in her wings. It was liked being wrapped in a warm blanket, her wings protecting him from the biting cold that was still present even in this city.

Just like when she had caught him, four days earlier Grian felt her emotions, though not as strongly as before since she wasn’t panicked. There was joy, elation, trust, but also anxiety and worry. Over Eladrin’s shoulder, he could see the ender dragon, watching the two of them with mirth dancing in their eyes.

Grian pulled back from Eladrin, and she let him go, her wings folding back up neatly. “Seriously though, weren’t you reading your communicator?”

Eladrin blushed, which was an interesting effect that stained her cheeks black rather then red. “N-no. I kind of.... shoved it into a draw when I got home.” She admitted sheepishly. “I’ll go get it now!” She decided, quickly turning and then teleporting away. Leaving Grian alone with Siarelth.

Siarelth. The Ender Dragon. Who was grinning at him. The moved one of their front legs, to reveal to Grian Eladrin’s communicator. “My Eladrin has always had a tendency of over reacting.” Her voice purred in his mind. Like the void’s, there was none of that static, just crystal clear words and intents.

“I tried to convince her to talk to you, but she was certain that if you knew you would hate her.” She shook her head “she has had passed experiences with humans, as have we all. Not everyone takes so kindly to our way of life. But she spoke of you ‘hermits’ with only the highest praise. I knew you would not let her down.”

Grian nodded “all of us adore her. We would never do anything to harm one of our own.” Siarelth just nodded in agreement, not saying any more. And they stayed like that for a few minutes.

“Are you her mother?” He finally asked. And Siarelth chuckled

“In a way, I suppose I am. But we Ender dragons do not reproduce the same way you mortals do. I have given her a portion of my magic, my Pearl, which would usually be reserved for my egg, upon my death. She was human, once. And now, one day she will be a dragon. But for now, she is the Princess. And your friend. Treat her well.”

That was a warning, delivered so flippantly that he might have missed it. And he fell silent again, waiting. “Are you gonna tell her that you have her communicator?” He asked, after a while.

“She’ll work it out eventually.” She answered jovially. And Grian chuckled. Eladrin had always had a slight mischievous streak, and once she was more friendly with the hermits, she enjoyed sneaking up on them and startling them, and now he saw where she got it from.

Eventually Eladrin vwipped back into the room, and stalked over to Siarelth, who nudged her communicator towards her with a face that was the picture of innocence. Eladrin stooped down to pick it up with a fond huff, before meekly padding over to Grian.

“Can I ask a favour?” She said quietly, pulling at the edge of her half skirt.

“Of course! We’re friends!” He responded chipperly, and she smiled at him blushing again.

“Can you properly introduce me to the other hermits? I-I don’t want to do it alone.” He grinned at her

“Of course I can! But on one condition.” He said with a sly wink “we gotta surprise them”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consistent chapter length? Who’s that, I’ve never met her.
> 
> This is the second to last chapter of the plot, probably, then I’ll mark this story complete. I might still add more to it, but it’ll just be Eladrin vibing with the hermits, not much story.


	8. Chapter 8

Mumbo sighed as he looked over the cliff and into the lava lake below. He was one of the hermits that had agreed to search the Nether for Ender. And he’d been searching for hours now without finding a single sign. He had ended up back at the cliff where Grian had said Ender had saved him, he was about to turn around and go back to looking, when he felt his communicator buzz.

Grian: alright guys, that’s enough for today  
Grian: we should meet up at the shopping district  
Grian: go over what we’ve found and discuss tomorrow’s plans  
Iskall85: I haven’t found anything at all though  
MumboJumbo: Me either  
MumboJumbo: I feel like we should still keep on searching  
XisumaVoid: No, Grian is right  
XisumaVoid: We need rest, we might miss something vital if we can’t think straight

Mumbo huffed frustratedly, he knew Xisuma was right, but he didn’t like the idea of not looking as hard as he could.

FalseSymmetry: We’re heading back now.  
ZombieCleo: Nether team should meet up at the cliff

Well, at least he was already at the cliff. He sat down on the edge of it, letting his legs dangle off the side while he waited for the rest of his group to turn up, once the whole team, Mumbo, False, Cleo, Stress and Scar, were gathered at the cliff, and had checked their elytra, they set off towards the portal.

Upon seeing his teammates, he has suddenly felt glad they were stopping for the day. Everyone looked exhausted, and he guessed he must look awful too judging from the sympathetic looks everyone was giving him.

They flew back without a word about their findings, having reached a silent agreement to wait to report their bucketloads of nothing until they had everyone together.

As their group reached the shopping district Nether portal, they spotted Etho and Xisuma also heading towards it, along with some of the hermits who hadn’t joined a search party today, they exchanged quick greetings before stepping through the portal.

It seems they were the last to arrive, Grian and Iskall were there already, along with the rest of the hermits.

Everyone gathered around, exchanging hugs and the rested hermits giving the others food and water, just in case they’d not been taking care of themselves (some of them hadn’t) before everyone gathered around in a circle in front of down hall.

Grian led the discussion, asking each hermit in turn for their report. Nobody had anything but the coordinates of end cities and nether fortresses. Eventually, Xisuma turned to Grian.

“And what about you? If the coordinates of your end cities are anything to go by, you went the furthest of any of us.” It was true, he’d gone further out then any of them by an order of magnitude.

Mumbo could see Grian fighting to keep a grin off his face, as he bounced on the balls of his feet “oh, nothing much” he said flippantly “I only found *her*.” He said, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder as a winged figured dropped out of the sky behind him, landing hunched over with a soft thud, before straightening up and letting them all see her eyes.

There was a moment of stunned silence, as Grian broke out into his signature shit eating grin. As the silence stretched on, the hermits watched Ender deflate, her head dropping and her wings drooping, as she shuffled behind Grian, as if to try and hide from everyone staring at her, which might have worked if she wasn’t a head and a half taller then him, and twice as wide thanks to her wings.

It was her moving, that finally promoted Mumbo to speak “Ender?” He asked dumbly, because it had to be her, and she nodded, then shook her head.

“My name is Eladrin.” She introduced herself meekly, and Mumbo saw a few hermits wince from the unintelligible echoes in their mind.

“I-I’m sorry for making you worry.” She added “Thank you for looking for me.” Grian craned his head to look at her, with a grin and a thumbs up, and Mumbo saw her echo his smile nervously.

The she straightened up behind Grian again, “I-I’m looking forward to getting to know you all!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand with that super short chapter, this is where I mark this fic as complete! As I said earlier, I might still write more (especially since I left out a significant portion of what I originally planned for this chapter, but I can feel my hyperfixation waning and I figured some resolution was better then none)
> 
> Thank you so, so much to everyone who read this, and extra thank yous to people who left kudos, commented or subscribed! Y’all gave me the motivation to finish a project for the first time in years.


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